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CRESWICK CHINESE CAMP ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA

Location CRUSHING AVENUE CRESWICK, HEPBURN SHIRE Level Heritage Inventory Site

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Creswick Chinese Camp Archaeological Area is the site of the former Chinese village, initially one of a number of informal camps but developed into a series of =streets with small alotments. It today comprises part of the Calembeen Park, School plantation reserve, Old Creswick Cemetery, four private residential allotments, and road reserves. Part of the area was mined for shallow alluvial gold between the early 1850s and the early 1860s. This area was worked over a number of times by Chinese miners, and it later became the site of a Chinese settlement which was occupied up until the late nineteenth century. In the late 1890s, the Black Lead Hydraulic Sluicing Company mined the black lead deposits which extend under the site, creating the large excavations which subsequently became ponds in Calembeen Park
How is it significant?
Creswick Chinese Camp Archaeological Area is of historical, and scientific (Archaeological) significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
Creswick Chinese Camp Archaeological Area is of historical significance as a rare example of a formalized Chinese settlement on the Victorian Goldfields, which was well documented and considered of sufficient importance to become the subject of several paintings by prominent Victorian artists. It represents a distinctive component in the sotry of Chinese settlement in Victoria and the relationship between immigrant Chinese miners and white communities on the goldfields.
Creswick Chinese Camp Archaeological Area is of archaeological significance for its potential to reveal artefacts and features related to the occupation of land by the Chinese community, in a setting that can isolate material culture to a specific group. While parts of the area may have been disturbed by later mining activity, there is potential for intact, stratified deposits and structural or landscape features.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Other - Residential Buildings (private)